


simple

by illiterateidiot



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:35:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22721824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/illiterateidiot/pseuds/illiterateidiot
Summary: mike and bill celebrate valentine's (february 1991 vs february 2017)
Relationships: Bill Denbrough/Mike Hanlon
Comments: 4
Kudos: 36





	simple

**Author's Note:**

> this used to just be like a rough draft but i actually went back and edited it so it isn't a super sloppy mess!! bill and mike are soft bitches and love each other DEARLY. also i added the mention of mikey's dad bc i started the book and will hanlon is the loml

**_february, 1991_ **

Bill and Mike are lying against the oak tree on the edge of the meadow on Mike’s farm, the two watching clouds with a bowl of honeydew between them. Mike is nervous, really nervous, because upstairs in his room he has a card and a gift for Bill he knows they’re too old for him to pass off as just a friendly gesture, and the air feels as ripe with opportunity as the melon Mike and his father had cut up this morning because, hell, he invited Bill to his place on Valentine’s Day and Bill had said _yes_. Because sometimes Mike catches him staring with this soft smile on his face Mike wishes he could place (and maybe, just maybe, he can). Because he’s been wearing the jacket Bill left here months ago that when he’d tried to return it Bill had said, “Just k-keep it, Mikey. Looks b-better on you anyway”. That _has_ to mean something. But this is Derry, so Mike is too scared to do much more than ask Bill over to “hang” on Valentines, give Bill a soft smile of his own, and wear the jacket as often as possible.

He thinks of asking Bill upstairs to show him the card he spent more time than he would like to admit on, and the notebook and pen Mikes thinks might be too plain but remembers Bill once telling him, “If I can write in it, it’s a g-g-g- it’s a good gift.” and Mike doesn’t exactly have a lot to spend. He decides against it, instead taking a piece of honeydew and turning to Bill with a joking lilt to his voice so he can’t see just how real it is, asking, “Will you be my valentine?” Bill smiles and rolls his eyes, taking the piece.

“I dunno, M-Mikey, think I might need a- a bit more convincing,” and the way he’s smiling and the way his eyes are crinkling and sparkling in the sun almost convinces Mike to kiss him right here and now. Bill’s beautiful and Mike’s in love and wants to kiss Bill more than anything and for a moment, just a moment, he thinks he just might. But he knows it’s not safe. Even if this is Bill Denbrough, Big Bill, leader of the Losers, and Mike’s best friend, this is still Derry fucking Maine. Maybe it’s a little safer on the farm, where no one dares to go except the losers, where no one would catch them but his parents. But Mike is scared.

So instead, Mike smiles and grabs Bill’s hand, sticky with melon and sweat. Bill looks surprised for a moment, but he gives Mike one more of those smiles he secretly covets. They spend the rest of Valentine’s Day in the field, just enjoying the feel of the other’s hand.

**_february, 2017_ **

Now that it’s all over, Mike has started traveling. He stayed in Florida for a few months, but realized he wanted to see more and more and more, traveling first to New York (a visit to Eddie, just to start himself off), then to Rhode Island, then to Vermont, and that’s just the beginning. He’s kind of insatiable, but that’s what happens when you stay in one place for forty years to protect everyone you love, he guesses. 

Today, however, he’s taking a break from the East Coast to find himself in Los Angeles, standing in Bill’s kitchen with a smile on his face as he watches Bill cut up a plate of honeydew. He thought that smile would be gone, after all they hadn’t seen each other since they were teens, but Mike knows he loves Bill just as much as the day he left Derry.

“You remember this?” Bill asks him as he sets down the plate of melon between them, coming around the island so nothing separates them. As if Mike could ever forget.

“Of course I do, Bill. Only Valentines I ever really celebrated.”

“Why’s that?”

“Never really found anyone else I wanted to celebrate it with.” Bill looks surprised for a moment, just like he did when Mike had grabbed his hand all those years ago, but he starts to smile, starting out the soft one Mike has coveted since he was thirteen and quickly turning into a grin.

“In that case,” Bill says as he grabs a piece of honeydew and hands it to Mike. “Will you be my Valentine?” and it makes Mike laugh, to know they’re still doing this stupid dance even as old as they are.

“I dunno, Billy, think I might need a bit more convincing,” he teases. He thinks Bill might just go for the obvious; grab Mike’s hand and be done with it. Thankfully he doesn’t. Thankfully he ends the dance with a kiss that Mike leans into, but thinks he might be smiling just a bit too wide to be considered kissing back. Bill tastes like honeydew.

Bill pulls back after a minute, probably to breathe, and gives Mike that smile. “I thought that’s what you were gonna do. On the f-f-farm.”

“I wanted to. _Badly_. But I was so scared, Bill.” And Bill kisses him again with his hand caressing Mike’s cheek like he’s something precious. The kiss is slow and sweet. Bill pulls back quicker than before and says,

“I, uh, got you a p-present,” and pulls a box out of his jacket pocket. Mike’s smile, he can barely believe, grows. “It’s small, b-but I figured you’d like it?”

“You’re already giving me your frequent flyer miles, Bill. What more can I ask for?” and Bill barks out a laugh and puts the box in Mike’s hand. He opens it, and inside he sees a compass. “It’s beautiful, Bill.” And it is. It’s silver and engraved with flowers. It reminds Mike of the meadow on his farm.

“Open it,” Bill instructs, so Mike does and thinks the smile may be permanently etched on his face. It’s a picture of all of them at the iHop they went to after they finally left Derry because Richie had said, “I would kill a man for some chocolate chip pancakes. Well, another man.” Beverly had asked the waitress to take a picture of them all. The photo was utter chaos because Richie never didn’t take an opportunity to bug Eddie, and Eddie never didn’t rise to the bait, and Stan never didn’t look like he wasn’t going to murder them when they got like that, and the rest of them tried to look like normal human beings but were trying so hard not to laugh they ended up looking like constipated idiots. It’s Mike’s favorite picture.

“Thank you, Bill. _So_ much,” he says, hoping he gets across just how much he loves this. Just how much Bill’s kindness makes him _feel._

“No matter where you are, you know that we’re there. Compass be damned. You _always_ have a home with us, Mikey.” He says it slow and deliberate and Mike’s going to cry, he knows he’s going to, so he throws his arms around Bill and hugs him like he did when he saw him for the first time in nearly three decades. This time Bill doesn’t hesitate before hugging him just as tight.

“I love you,” he says, not for the first time in his life, but for the first time in his life hoping that Bill knows he means it _like that_. For the first time he’s not afraid. “I have for a long, long time.” Bill hugs him tighter for just a moment before letting go and, with a wet glean in his eyes, says,

“I love you, too.” And it’s as simple as that. Mike kisses him again, wanting it to stay that simple for a long, long time. For the rest of their lives.


End file.
